Greek Language

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This project is co-funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained therein.

Supported by the DI-XL project related with the dissemination and exploitation of LLP results through libraries

Intro

Why should someone today learn Greek, a language which is spoken only from a few people in the world, a language which is the official language only of Greece and Cyprus? Why should someone learn a language which does not use the latin alphabet and is hard even to read? Why should someone learn a language which has such an extensive vocabulary that makes you become lost in the fine tinctures of the meaning? Why should someone learn a language whose morphology is so complex, since it has its roots at the beginning of the 8th century B.C? Why should someone learn a language which has so many older forms that is impossible to speak it and write it properly in a high level of language proficiency without having to go back to the knowledge of katharevousa or of ancient Greek?

The answer is of course: because of all the above mentioned facts. The Greek language could be the key for someone to study issues such as the modifications of a language, its survival through the time, the journey of the words and their meanings.

“This book is going to deal with the wonderful qualities of the Greek language” says the Hellenist Jacqueline de Romilly in the book “Greek Lessons” (Okeanida editions) “not in order to teach its figures or its rules, but in order to describe its beauty. Our aim is to highlight through a series of examples the slight expressive colors that the Greek language has produced through its so special mechanisms, and to try, under this angle, to interpret both the amazing impact and diffusion of this language in a very wide geographical area and the way with which the Greek language has left its stamp to the most European languages, first of which is the Latin language, throughout the centuries.

The Greek language is rational and beautiful as the mathematics. Its grammar is not just rules: the exceptions are defining the framework. They make you think, they make you decide. It is the language of the music of the rules.